Ridgefield's historic Odd Fellows building goes up for sale

RIDGEFIELD - Ralph Gay remembers when more than 100 people attended square dances at the Odd Fellows lodge in Ridgefield. That was in the 1940s.

"My father used to play in the band," said Gay, now 78. "So many people would attend that they'd have dancing going on on two floors. That's when the lodge was on Main Street."
Today, the Ridgefield order of the Odd Fellows is a memory.
The chapter heard its death knell six months ago when Pilgrim Lodge on King Street closed its doors for the last time.
"You can go back a year and a half to where we weren't functioning properly," said Gay, who joined the Odd Fellows in 1947. "Young men joined and didn't put the time in. Older members retired and moved out of town. Most everybody from Ridgefield is going to New Milford's lodge now."
Now the

of Connecticut plans to sell Pilgrim Hall. There are at least two potential buyers for the Tudor-style building - the
Jesse Lee Memorial United Methodist Church
and Scandia Construction & Development.
The church, which is considering expansion, is adjacent to the Odd Fellows property and has historical ties to it. The church used to own part of the Pilgrim Lodge property, and the church community building,
Wesley Hall
, was a mansion while. Pilgrim Lodge was a carriage house, both on the estate.
"We've been interested in it for years," said the Rev.
Karen Karpow
, pastor at Jesse Lee. "Our church is healthy and growing. We've been in need of more space for our youth program, for meeting places. We'd probably put some offices in there. We don't have a definite plan yet. We're not even sure we can purchase the building. But there's no doubt that we could use the space."
Scandia Construction's

Roger Petersen
declined to say what he might do with Pilgrim Lodge and the 1.5 acres upon which it sits. But he said he "made an offer to the Odd Fellows and they accepted it."
Petersen, a developer in Ridgefield for 21 years, built the High Ridge Avenue housing development eight years ago. High Ridge Avenue is in the town's Historic District, as is Pilgrim Lodge.
Leslie Ide
, chairman of the
Historic District Commission
, said because Pilgrim Lodge is in the Historic District, it cannot be demolished without commission approval. She does not favor the building's destruction. "I think it is one of the significant buildings in the district," Ide said.
Originally, the estate was owned by the Hawley family and was a cluster of shingled buildings made to look like medieval country cottages, according to the

Ridgefield Preservation Trust
.
In the 1930s, the estate was owned by
Sanford Freund
, an international lawyer, who changed the buildings to a Tudor style.
As membership declined, Pilgrim Lodge began having financial difficulties.
Warren Smith
, grand secretary for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Connecticut, said the fate of the Ridgefield lodge is all too common.
"In most all fraternal organizations, membership started to drop off in the 1950s and 1960s," Smith said. "With television and now with today's Internet, there isn't the interest that got people involved."
In its heyday, Pilgrim Lodge played host to barbecue chicken dinners in the summer, children's Christmas parties in the winter and other family-oriented events.
"Girl Scouts used us as a drop-off site for their cookie sales," Gay said. "Boy Scouts met at our hall as did other organizations around town. We had members from all walks of life."
David Broadhurst
was initiated into the Odd Fellows in 1945. He joined for the social contact and because his father and grandfather had been lodge members. "Initially, I think it was the square dances that drew me to the lodge," Broadhurst said. "I was a teenager and they'd have great turnouts."
Broadhurst, 78, rose through the Odd Fellows ranks and served in top statewide positions. But he never stopped attending lodge meetings in Ridgefield.
"It's like a family. The camaraderie at the meetings was great - not that we didn't have some heated discussions," Broadhurst said. "The back and forth, the playful exchanges between members - that's the kind of thing that makes it fun."